


Freefall

by AXEe



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fluff and Humor, Holodecks/Holosuites, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23574460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: I cannot be the only one who still ships these two, I just can't! Alara/Ed shippers, dust off your keyboards!!! Write! Write like the wind! :=)
Relationships: Alara Kitan/Ed Mercer
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	Freefall

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot be the only one who still ships these two, I just can't! Alara/Ed shippers, dust off your keyboards!!! Write! Write like the wind! :=)

******

The environmental simulator could replicate virtually any environment that was programed into it. From the cold darkness of space to vibrant, thriving planets, real or imagined, if you could describe it you could create it in the simulator.

Sitting on the holographic beach, Alara looked around, nodding to herself as the doors slid open behind her, a cautious set of footsteps crunching on the gravel towards her.

“Wow,” Ed exclaimed softly “this is beautiful”

“Yeah,” Alara nodded “it is, isn’t it?” she mused as he lowered himself down to the blanket she was sitting on.

“So, this is Xelaya, huh?” Ed asked.

“This is it” Alara nodded.

“I mean,” Ed shook his head in clear disbelief “I knew this was place was beautiful, but still! Wow!”

“I grew up around here” Alara remarked.

“No kidding?” Ed turned to look at her.

“Yeah,” she nodded “see over there?” she pointed out across the water “that little point of land?”

“Yeah?”

“My parents’ friends have a little beach house down there,” Alara explained “we used to stay there in the summer”

“Can we go see?” Ed wondered.

“It’s not part of the program, sorry” Alara shook her head.

“Too bad,” Ed looked around again as they lapsed into a comfortable silence “too bad we can’t come here for real,” he remarked suddenly “well, _I_ can’t,” he added “’cause, I’d be, you know…,” he made a squeezing motion with his hands “squished into an…Ed-pancake. ‘Edcake’, that’s it, I’d be an ‘Edcake’. Or, no, actually, I’d be a puddle wouldn’t I? Just…goo, right? Little puddle of Ed. All that gravity pounding me flat like Wil E Coyote after one of his traps fail”

“Ed!” Alara suddenly snapped

“Right. Sorry, sorry,” he apologized “I get nervous on first dates”

“Well you’re making _me_ nervous!” she hissed “so, please, I’m begging you, stop it!”

“No,” he sighed “ _I’m_ sorry,” he rubbed at his eyes “I haven’t been on a date in over a year,” he began “and…” he trailed off.

“And…?” Alara asked.

“You’re a member of my crew,” Ed pointed out “and…you’re also someone I consider to be a good friend,” he shook his head “I already screwed my last relationship I don’t want to screw up another one. Especially with someone I really respect as both a person and as an officer,” he explained “not that I don’t respect Kelly!” he added suddenly “I do! It’s just…different with you. Does that make sense?”

“It does,” Alara nodded “yeah,” she leaned back, laying down on the blanket, reaching up to grab Ed’s arm and tug him down next to her “I’m nervous too,” she admitted softly as she snuggled up to his side “nervous that I’ll screw this all up,” she continued “that I’ll cost us both our positions here on the _Orville_ , that I’ll hurt you”

“How could _you_ hurt _me_?” Ed wondered “and I don’t just mean the strength thing, I mean, you know my track record”

“Mine isn’t all that great either” she countered.

Ed snorted.

“Your track record’s fine,” he dismissed “your last boyfriends were just idiots, that’s all, nothing to do with you”

“You think so?” she asked.

“I _know_ so” Ed declared sagely.

“So, you’re saying that you’re smarter than both Josh and Andy combined?”

“Well…I wouldn’t go _that_ far,” Ed chuckled “I mean, isn’t one of them an astrophysicist or something? But, I’d like to think that I at least have more common sense than either of them when it comes to dating”

“You’re a better dancer too” she chuckled.

“Oh yeah, didn’t you say that one of them dance weird?”

“Andy, yeah,” she nodded “too grindy,” she held up her hands and pushed them together “he’d get, like, right up against me and…” she trailed off.

“So you’re saying that he basically dry-humped you” Ed stated.

“No,” she frowned “not quite, but it was definitely more than what you’d expect for a first dance” she explained.

“Remind me to have him thrown out an airlock sometime” Ed grumbled.

“Ed! That’s terrible!” Alara laughed.

“I’d have him brought back,” Ed assured her “but maybe, just a few seconds in a total vacuum, might be enough for him to get it that he’s the one who screwed up”

“Nah, I can just tie him into a pretzel if he bothers me,” Alara chuckled. She frowned “what is a pretzel anyway?”

“It’s like bread, except the dough’s twisted into this unique shape,” Ed explained “they’re good”

“I’ll have to try one sometime”

“You should” he grinned.

She grinned back, the two of them lapsing into comfortable silence again.

“You know, it really is a shame that you can’t come to Xelaya,” she remarked suddenly “I’d love to take you to meet my parents”

“Really?” Ed asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded “it’d really freak them out” she laughed.

“Hey, don’t tempt me,” he chuckled “because I’d find a way,” he pulled her closer “still, I think you’d like my parents. And I mean my _real_ parents, not some creepy bait for an alien zoo”

“I’d like to meet them sometime” she nodded.

“You should,” he agreed “I think they’d like you, Kelly and them never really got along, even before the divorce”

“That’s too bad”

Ed shrugged.

“Eh, it happens” he dismissed, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead, completely at ease with her forehead ridges. Sighing in contentment, she pulled herself closer to him…

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> They need a ship name, do they have a ship name? Let me know what you thought :=)


End file.
